The Cannes Film Festival is a key industry showcase. It’s where directors like Quentin Tarantino and Sofia Coppola cut their teeth. It’s also the best place to look for movies that will wow the world in the coming year.
The festival runs for the 78th time between May 13 and 24. Here’s a look at the most important and intriguing films screening at Cannes 2025.
The Phoenician Scheme
Wes Anderson’s latest caper is a good fit for Cannes. The star-studded cast includes everyone from Benicio del Toro and Tom Hanks to Scarlett Johansson and Riz Ahmed. It’s about a business magnate, an inheritance, and a terrorist plot.
The whole thing is typical for an auteur director with a set style. Based on the trailer, it won’t win over Anderson skeptics, but it should satisfy his fans.
Eddington
Directing Hereditary (2018) and Midsommar (2019) gave Ari Aster the power to make Beau is Afraid (2023). He’s reunited with star Joaquin Phoenix for Eddington, a modern Western movie about local politics, the pandemic, and murder.
It comes from a script Aster wrote over a decade ago, but held back. It costars Pedro Pascal as a mayor who butts heads with Phoenix’s sheriff. The supporting cast includes Emma Stone, Austin Butler, and Luke Grimes.
Die, My Love
Director Lynne Ramsay has not made a feature film since 2017’s You Were Never Really Here. Before that, she shocked audiences with We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011). Her next project looks just as juicy.
It stars Jennifer Lawrence as a woman living in an isolated rural community. The plot involves mental health troubles and the breakdown of her relationship with her husband (Robert Pattinson).
If this sounds like hard work, don’t worry. Die, My Love is more of a dark comedy than an intense thriller. It’s also Ramsay’s latest chance to win the Palme d’Or, the festival’s top prize.
New Wave
Also known as Nouvelle Vague, it’s director Richard Linklater’s love letter to the cinematic movement of the same name. The film focuses on the making of Breathless (1960) and will be almost entirely in French. Guillaume Marbeck plays director Jean-Luc Godard, while everyone from Francois Truffaut to Claude Chabrol will also appear as characters.
New Wave is another project that seems tailor-made for a Cannes premiere. Reports suggest it will have a 4:3 aspect ratio and use a black-and-white color palette. This should help it capture the period and the energy of the French New Wave movement.
Alpha
The body horror genre recently received a boost thanks to The Substance (2024). Interestingly, its top directors are female and French.
Julia Ducorneau is one of this group and won the Palme d’Or in 2021 for Titane. She returns to Cannes with Alpha. The setup sounds simple: A young teenager with her share of issues living in a single-parent household gets a tattoo. Then, her home life implodes.
The cast includes Golshifteh Farahani, Tahar Rahim, Emma Mackey, and Finnegan Oldfield. If Titane‘s critical acclaim is anything to go by, Alpha deserves your attention.
Renoir
Japanese director Chie Hayakawa seems destined for great things. Her short Niagara (2014) earned praise, and her feature debut Plan 75 (2022) also impressed critics. Now we get Renoir, a coming-of-age story set in 1980s Tokyo.
Its stars include Yui Suzuki and Hikari Ishida. With Hayakawa’s track record for clever social commentary and previous Cannes heat, 2025 could be her year.
Eleanor the Great
Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut will screen at Cannes 2025. Eleanor the Great is about an unusual friendship between a woman in her 90s and a university student. Set in New York City, it will appear in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. That’s the counterpart to the Palme d’Or, highlighting films outside the mainstream. This can be because of their style, the stories they tell, or both. It’s also where newer directors get showcased.
June Squibb leads the cast, along with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Jessica Hecht, and Erin Kellyman. Johansson’s name alone will be enough to get people talking. She has directed short films before, but this is her first feature. If it clicks with the Cannes crowd, it could be the start of the next chapter of her career.
The Chronology of Water
Scarlett Johansson is not the only A-list actor making their directing debut at Cannes 2025. Kristen Stewart is also taking the plunge with a film she co-wrote, based on a memoir by Lidia Yuknavitch.
Imogen Poots plays Yuknavitch, while Thora Birch and Earl Cave support. Produced by Ridley Scott, The Chronology of Water has strong foundations.
The book it’s adapted from deals with tough topics, including addiction and abuse. It will be interesting to see how a new director like Stewart tackles these. Like Eleanor the Great, it is part of the Un Certain Regard Cannes category. Of course, festival crowds aren’t afraid to boo new movies, so debut directors must be brave.
Highest 2 Lowest
Spike Lee is back with another adaptation of an Asian movie after his disappointing remake of Oldboy (2003). He’s taking on Akira Kurosawa’s High and Low (1963) this time. It’s a chance at redemption.
Highest 2 Lowest is premiering at the Cannes Film Festival 2025 but isn’t competing for any prizes. This takes a lot of the pressure off. The cast includes Denzel Washington, Ilfenesh Hadera, and Jeffrey Wright. The source movie is a crime thriller about the kidnapping of a businessman’s son, which is safe story territory.
Like Da 5 Bloods (2020), Highest 2 Lowest will mainly be a streaming release, this time courtesy of Apple TV. However, A24 will also distribute it to select theaters, so audiences can choose where to see it.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning
It’s not all art films and social realism at Cannes 2025. The final Mission: Impossible movie will be there to represent the big guns of Hollywood.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie and starring Tom Cruise, it follows on from 2023’s Dead Reckoning Part One. The cast list covers all the bases, with Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Hayley Atwell returning. Expect action, intrigue, and high stakes. It’s just a pity the film won’t be eligible for a stunt design Oscar. That category is coming in 2028.
Honey Don’t!
Once, the Coen Brothers made kooky movies together, but now they’re tackling solo projects. Honey Don’t! is Ethan Coen’s latest effort, and doesn’t stray far from his screwball comedy comfort zone.
Margaret Qualley stars as a private investigator, alongside co-stars Aubrey Plaza and Chris Evans. Charlie Day and Billy Eichner also star, so it should be a lighter neo-noir.
Coen wrote the script with Tricia Cooke, and the pair last worked together on Drive-Away Dolls (2024). He’ll want Honey Don’t! to do better with the critics. It premieres as one of Cannes’ Midnight Screenings.
All Eyes on Cannes
The 2025 Cannes Film Festival comes at an uncertain time for cinema. Box office takings are missing targets, streaming services are growing more slowly, and even comic book movies aren’t surefire hits.
In this context, the films showing at Cannes have a lot riding on them. Directors like Wes Anderson, Ari Aster, and Lynne Ramsay have good track records. Scarlett Johansson and Kristen Stewart have plenty of fans. Without ticket sales, none of this matters.
Outside of this, there’s a lot to get film fans excited, including body horror, biopics, indie projects, and blockbusters. Watch for the trailers, reviews, and coverage from Cannes 2025. It will impact what movies make it to a festival near you in the next few months.
